100 Trillion Bacteria in Your Gut: Learn How to Keep the Good Kind
There
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
You probably don't think about your gut very often but this may make
you start--the bacteria in your bowels outnumber the cells in your
body by a factor of 10 to one. This gut flora has incredible power
over your immune system, which, of course, is your body's natural
defense system that keeps you healthy. In other words, the health of
your body is largely tied into the health of your gut, and it's hard
to have one be healthy if the other is not.
One of the reasons why your gut has so much power has to do with the
100 trillion bacteria--about three pounds worth--that line your
intestinal tract. This is an extremely complex living system that
aggressively protects your body from outside offenders.
However, if you are eating as many sugars as the typical American
(about 175 pounds per year) then you are feeding the "bad" bacteria,
which are more likely to cause disease than promote health, rather
than promoting the "good" bacteria that help protect you from disease.
Exposure to chemicals will also contribute to this disruption in your
gut microflora, and over time the imbalance will lead to illness.
A large part of the influence of the "bad" bacteria is on the
intestinal lining (mucousal barrier) that is over 300 square meters,
or about the size of a tennis court.
Beneficial bacteria in your gut can help to boost the immune system,
prevent allergic inflammation and food allergy, clear up eczema in
children and heal the intestines from a variety of ailments.
Fortunately, you can influence the composition of the good and bad
bacteria in your gut by optimizing your diet and supplementing it with
a high-quality probiotic, or good bacteria. As written in a re****t in
the October 2003 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, "probiotics
can act as partners of the defense system of the intestine."
The typical American diet is so full of sugar and grains that--
although I don't often recommend supplements--nearly everyone can
benefit from probiotics. You should look for a high potency, multi-
strain variety, which can be found in most health food stores. Since
the best type of probiotic to use can become highly specific, you may
want to discuss the varieties with an experienced health food store
employee.
I recommend probiotics to nearly all of our new patients, as it is a
helpful start for their health recovery. This is not a lifetime
recommendation, however. Once you are eating the right foods it is
generally possible to maintain a healthy bacterial balance in your gut
without the use of probiotics.
On a side note, probiotics are especially helpful when you are
traveling in the event you get an infectious diarrhea. Typically,
large doses of a high-quality probiotic--about one-half to one full
bottle in one day--are quite useful for a rapid resolution of the
diarrhea.
Related Articles:
Beneficial Bacteria (Probiotics) May Halt Allergies In Babies
One Third of Probiotics, "Good Bacteria" Products Like Acidophilus,
Found to be Worthless
'Good' Bacteria Help Kids with Diarrhea
Good Bacteria Fights the Flu
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-gut.aspx
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